Corneal epithelial cell migration in humans: ‘Hurricane and blizzard keratopathy’

Abstract

SUMMARYpattern is almost always clockwise. We believe that this specific pattern is likely to be due to the effect of the elec tromagnetic fields of the eye on the migrating epithelial cells and present a theory to explain this phenomenon. In 3 eyes of 2 other patients with chronic epitheliopathies we observed a random distribution of cells that did not con form to any specific pattern. We have termed this con dition 'blizzard keratopathy'.

Clonal analysis of patterns of growth, stem cell activity, and cell movement during the development and maintenance of the murine corneal epithelium

“…The resulting whorled pattern of corneal abnormality in heterozygous females is presumably a consequence of heterogeneity of expression in limbal stem cell clones (functional mosaicism for ␣-galactosidase expression), similar to the phenomenon described in this study. In reported cases of vortex keratopathy, the whorls always turn clockwise, and it has been suggested that this finding is in response to electrical fields across the corneal surface (Dua et al, 1993(Dua et al, , 1996. In contrast, in our model, both clockwise and counterclockwise whorls were observed, apparently randomly with respect to left and right eyes, but only in the very centre of the cornea.…”

Centripetal Movement of Corneal Epithelial Cells in the Normal Adult Mouse

“…18 However, the whorls in the GFPU mouse cornea were both clockwise and counterclockwise, similar to those in the Lac-Z chimeric mice, 17 and therefore the electromagnetic theory does not seem applicable to these mice.…”

Do transplanted corneal limbal stem cells survive in vivo long term? Possible techniques to detect donor cell survival by polymerase chain reaction with the amelogenin gene and Y-specific probes

“…The presence of detectable donor cells in all test samples from the patient would suggest that extensive cell migration over the corneal surface is able to occur, as has been suggested by studies of models of corneal epithelial loss. 18 Further studies intend to clarify whether these findings do represent geniune survival of low levels of donor cells or merely a tantalising but erroneous picture.…”